French vignette - a long one: Read it if you dare!

June 18, 1940 - June 18, 2025

Today marks the 85th anniversary of one of the most recognizable speeches in French history.

“L’ Appel du 18 juin.” The Appeal of June 18, 1940.

This is a date most French natives relate to through history lessons dating back to their days “à la communale” (public school) or stories told by their parents and grand-parents, of a time most of us were lucky not to know, the German Occupation of France and Europe during WW2.

To understand what that date means to the French, we need to go back in time.

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In the spring of 1940, more than 8 million north-Europeans and French citizens fled their homes in total panic, as German troops blitzed through the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, on their way to Paris. Hitler and his troops seemed unstoppable.

In France only 20 years after the end of "the Great War" chaos ruled once again, as the government left the French capital and headed to Tours. Newspapers stopped publishing. There was no information, no instructions, no leadership.

Turned into refugees the French had to rely on the goodwill of local authorities and local populations wherever they landed, as they fled west and south to safety. Most were convinced they’d be all right if they made it to the other side of the Loire river. Surely the mighty Loire would slow down German troops!

During the few weeks of the national crisis known as “l’Exode” two million Parisians abandoned their city with whatever belongings they could load up in cars (they would soon run out of gas,) wheelbarrows, children’s prams, or horse-drawn carriages. Only the sick and the elderly stayed behind.

Over the following weeks they joined millions of refugees flooding in from war-torn countries (the Netherlands, Belgium,) overwhelming local shelter capabilities, faced with uncertainty, precarious living conditions, hunger, and death (as German air raids caused havoc along the roads.)

They must have felt French society - and the world - was coming to an end, my countrymen. It is estimated more than 60,000 children were separated from their families during l’Exode. Many never saw them again, however hard authorities tried to track them.

By June 14 the Germans paraded victoriously in Paris. Within a few days, swastikas would be flying above major Parisian landmarks.

On June 17 France's new leader, an 83-year old officer turned politician, a decorated WW1 hero, Philippe Pétain, made a compassionate radio speech, calling for a cease-fire, and focusing on the fate of refugees and over 1,800,000 prisoners of war soon to be on their way to German labor camps.

It’s easy to understand Pétain’s appeal in the early days of the Occupation: He showed leadership at a time when no one in the French government did. Many believed him and started heading home, relieved to be off the roads soon.

Others didn’t trust Pétain or Hitler and stayed put or moved further away. For those who returned it would be a long and perilous trip back to Paris, Germans controlling French roads, who went through and who didn’t. Once at home, they soon realized life as they knew it in their city was gone.

Four years of German Occupation under Nazi rule had just started.

On June 18 one day after Pétain’s speech an unknown voice rose on the radio from the BBC in London. Many never heard it in the midst of ongoing chaos. They would come to recognize it in the months and years that followed.

That voice was Charles de Gaulle’s. A patriot, skilled officer and student of modern warfare he had fought during WW1 and WW2 and did not accept the terms of Pétain’s agreement with Hitler.

DeGaulle had rightly anticipated WWII would be a global conflict and headed to England where he sought the support of another staunch patriot, Winston Churchill, who would become his reluctant ally and favorite foe.

Neither could prevent the humiliating terms of the Armistice signed between France and Germany on June 22. France was de-facto cut in half, divided into an Occupied Zone (under German control) and a "Free Zone" placed under the supervision of the newly established Vichy government.

That same day De Gaulle launched another appeal to the French on the BBC. That speech reached a much wider audience.

Over the next four years, defying all odds, with sheer grit and ambition and faced with fierce opposition from some among Allied forces (including Franklin Delano Roosevelt who hated him and did his best to isolate him) General de Gaulle established himself as the leader of Free France, organizing the French Resistance from London, and eventually emerging out of the war years as a national hero.

He would remain part of French political life on and off, for the following three decades, eventually becoming the first president of the 5th French Republic.

Fifty five years after his death De Gaulle has as many admirers as detractors. He made controversial decisions. His arrogance did not sit well with some of his contemporaries. Still, everyone remembers his name and in France at least, realizes what the “Appeal of June 18, 1940” meant, the refusal to surrender, the stubborn belief that France still had a major part to play on the world stage.

His integrity as a man, a politician and his love of France have never been questioned.

De Gaulle made it possible for the French to look at themselves in the mirror after four years of German Occupation (and, some would add, collaboration) and keep their heads high hoping for a fresh start. If he had to rewrite inconvenient truths to get there, he did.

Not all French men and women had joined the Resistance, far from it. Yet some did, especially in the early days, and followed in De Gaulle's footsteps. They embarked on the perilous journey to London, leaving their families and lives behind, to help an unknown General in his fight against a formidable enemy. These men and women are worthy of our admiration and respect.

Merci à vous aussi, Général de Gaulle.

Photo 1: General De Gaulle broadcasting from London

Photo 2: The ubiquitous poster inspired by the June 18 appeal. It can be seen all over France.

Photo 3: Members of the French Resistance.

Photo 4: “Maquisards” from the Corrèze region.

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